Astronomy

Astronomy

hot big bang
When we look out at the Universe, even with Hubble, we're only seeing the closest, biggest, brightest galaxies. Here's where the rest are.
largest planet
There's a limit to how large planets can be, and it's only about double the radius of Jupiter. At least, so far.
hottest planet
Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury "only" reaches 800 °F at its hottest. Venus is always hotter, even at night.
amateur astronomy
Professional astronomy images are the gold standard. But this Large Magellanic Cloud composite is the amateur community's best image ever.
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy
“When molecules misbehave, it can lead to great insight.”
galaxies without dark matter
Out of all the galaxies we know, only a few little ones are missing dark matter. At last, we finally understand why.
black hole hit Earth
The odds are slim, but the consequences would be devastating. Here's what would happen, plus how to avoid it.
The Kardashev scale ranks civilizations from Type 1 to Type 3 based on energy harvesting.
James Webb Space Telescope
Once science operations begin for James Webb, we'll never look at the Universe the same way again. Here's what everyone should know.
A rocket launching into space.
Nearly 200 orbital launches are scheduled for 2022.
space expanding
Yes, the Universe is expanding, but you might wonder, "How fast is it expanding?"
average star
Please stop calling our Sun an "average star." It is philosophically dubious and astronomically incorrect.
bernardinelli-bernstein
65 million years ago, an asteroid strike caused the 5th great mass extinction. Could we save Earth, today, from a similar event?
Milky Way center
As viewed by the MeerKAT telescope, this radio view of the Milky Way blows away every other way we've ever seen our home galaxy.
There really might be extraterrestrials out there, attempting to make contact. Here's how science, not fiction, is attempting to find them.
einstein critics
Einstein's theories of relativity faced fierce opposition. One critic claimed he was attempting to subvert the scientific method.
new satellites
With launch costs dropping and enormous numbers of new satellites filling the sky, can't we just do it all from space?
parallel universe
In scientific theories, the Multiverse appears as a bug rather than as a feature. We should squash it.
how many stars
There are ~400 billion stars in the Milky Way, and ~2 trillion galaxies in the visible Universe. But what if we aren't typical?
isaac newton
From physics and alchemy to theology and eschatology, Isaac Newton’s research was rooted in a personal pursuit of the Divine.
big bang
There are an estimated two trillion galaxies within the observable Universe. Most are already unreachable, and the situation only gets worse.
James Webb Hubble
Hubble's deepest views of space revealed fewer than 10% of the Universe's galaxies. James Webb will change that forever.
super-Earth
In terms of the planets we've discovered, super-Earths are by far the most common. What does that mean for the Universe?
A color-enhanced image of Jupiter using data from the JunoCam camera..
With a new telescope on the horizon, we reflect on the best pictures of space that came before.
astrophysics ALMA
If you want to understand what the Universe is, how it began, evolved, and will eventually end, astrophysics is the only way to go.
how many planets
In 1990, we only knew of the ones in our Solar System. Today, we know of thousands, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
TOI-2257 b
The search for worlds outside our solar system has just turned up a planet, TOI-2257 b, with a truly extreme orbit.
james webb
The James Webb Space Telescope finally could answer the age-old question of whether we are alone in the universe.
supernova X-ray
The first supernova ever discovered through its X-rays has an enormously powerful engine at its core. It's unlike anything ever seen.